Let’s be clear: Liverpool have not looked that good this season. Four times have Arne Slot’s side had to dig deep in the Premier League and find something within the dying embers to secure all three points.
And yet, Liverpool have only played four matches in the Premier League this season, and have indeed won all four, and have started their title defence flawlessly, the only side to have done so.
Now, domestic action takes a breather, and the Champions League campaign begins. The Reds host Atletico Madrid on Wednesday evening, kicking off their eight-part group phase.
Defeated by eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain last season in the round of 16, Liverpool know they need to start strongly. Even so, their stunning top place finish in the group phase last year still pitted them against PSG, who had been subpar early on.
Liverpool have won every game in the Premier League this season, but they have also lacked their usual fluency and fizz in the final third.
Florian Wirtz joined for £116m in the summer, but the German has left plenty to be desired so far, and the question will be posed as to whether he should be dropped.
Wirtz's start to life at Liverpool
Wirtz, 22, left his German homeland cherished as one of the country’s modern greats. Indeed, journalist Chris Stonadge hailed him as a “generational talent” after playing an instrumental role in Bayer Leverkusen’s invincible championship of 2023/24.
But there’s no denying he’s struggled to get going for Slot’s Liverpool so far, assisting Hugo Ekitike in the Community Shield but blanking across his first four appearances in England’s top flight.
Might Liverpool be ready to place their midfield maestro on the bench? Wirtz, to be sure, has been somewhat below his best since joining the Premier League champions, but he’s still a world-class player and will soon crack the nut.
And anyway, he has demonstrated an incredible level of ability on the continental stage, starring for Leverkusen in the Champions League last season and picking up five Man of the Match awards, more than any other player.
It was his first foray into the competition.
It would be bold for Slot to drop Wirtz ahead of the opening night of the Champions League season, but the Dutch coach could make an even more contentious call by withdrawing one of Liverpool’s most instrumental figures from the starting line-up on Wednesday evening.
Slot could boldly axe Liverpool's talisman
It’s not been the smoothest start to the season for Mohamed Salah, and yet he has scored twice and assisted one goal across four games in the Premier League. This is Salah. This is what he does.
However, Slot is catering to a new system, which carries all the vagaries of fresh faces and how they fit together and how this affects the existing crop on the field. For the 33-year-old Salah, one of Europe’s deadliest attacking players, it has been a late-career learning curve, with the newfound quality at number nine hemming him in on the right flank.
Last year, the Egyptian icon was immense, the leading light who led Liverpool to the Premier League title. Across all competitions, he scored 34 goals and supplied 23 assists. In the Premier League, his 47 goal involvements broke the record for a 38-game season. Sky Sports’ Gary Neville described him as a “superstar”, and who could argue against it?
1 – Mohamed Salah
29 (18)
47
2 – Alexander Isak
23 (6)
29
3 – Bryan Mbeumo
20 (8)
28
4 – Erling Haaland
22 (3)
25
5 – Yoane Wissa
19 (5)
24
5 – Ollie Watkins
16 (8)
24
5 – Cole Palmer
15 (9)
24
And yet, he’s struggling, spending most of his time outside the flow of the match so far. To suggest that he should be dropped would be to accept bewilderment from many, but here it is anyway.
The season is young, and so make what you will of the data below, but with Sofascore recording Salah’s heatmap to have been pulled somewhat closer to the touchline, it’s clear that a new role has been handed to him, a subtle shift.
Salah might benefit from a pause from the action, allowed to enter the fray after the interval and prey on tired legs.
This would not be a regular occurrence, not at all, but with Jeremie Frimpong waiting in the wings and having impressed off the bench against Burnley, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world, adding some energy and pace into the game against an Atletico side who will enjoy nothing more than negating the Reds’ attacking threat.
Liverpool might not have hit the ground running this season, but they have claimed 12 points from 12 in the Premier League. Salah has played a big part in achieving that.
The Merseyside derby awaits on Saturday, and though the right winger’s athleticism and fitness are remarkable things, he might benefit from taking to the dugout for this one, still primed to enter the fray and make things happen after the break.
For 99% of Salah’s Liverpool career, dropping him on a big occasion has felt incomprehensible. Maybe it still does. But the 33-year-old veteran finds a new wealth of attacking talent to ease his burden, and his opening performances this term have left a lot to be desired, even with his trademark prolificness still intact.
Atletico will employ a rigid defensive structure, and they will seek to neutralise Salah and cut off that lane of creativity from the right.
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And, after all, Salah would still be ready for a big role throughout the second half, and given Liverpool’s current predilection for late goals, would a fresh Egyptian King in the closing stages not be a good thing, should Slot’s side need a goal?
